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Should He Stay or Should He Go? Clemson Basketball Coach Brad Brownell

Posted on by fcgordon25

Clemson concluded their basketball season by losing seven straight games and 10/11. It was an ugly finish as halftime leads seemed to vanish with regularity. Now that Selection Sunday has come and gone with yet another Clemson-less field, the second in a row, attention is slowly turning the job security of Head Coach Brad Brownell. Clemson fans aren’t quite as twitchy about a bad basketball season as in football, but nobody is happy about the program’s downward spiral. Brownell won 22 games in his first year. In year two he won 16, and in his just completed third year, just 13. With the depressing state of the program, I asked Mark Gordon, a Clemson alumnus, to weigh in. He camped out for tickets and sat in our much deserved front row seats with me at nearly every basketball game during our years at Clemson. Basketball was good back then and it fun. Not so much anymore.

So, without further rambling here is Gordon:

Let me preface this by saying, I am a Brad Brownell fan. I love the low-tempo motion-offense he runs and the emphasis he places on the defensive side of the ball. To me, his system is a message to opponents that they are going to have to play Clemson Basketball and it forces opponents to beat them at Clemson’s game in order to win. That being said, I know that it has been a VERY short time since Brad Brownell took over at Clemson, but it is time to end the experiment and move on to the next era in basketball at Clemson University.

No matter how sound your system is and no matter how well you teach the game, it all comes back to recruiting, and Coach Brownell has shown that he is not ready for prime time Division I basketball. Let’s take a look at next years team and the bleak state of Tiger Basketball. Next year, Clemson will have to run a three-guard offense. Not because they want too, not because it fits the system, because they will be FORCED to by Brownell’s recruiting.

Next years roster has only four players who can play the Forward and Center positions and only one player over 6’ 8″ (Nnoko). Those players consist of Jaron Blossomgame (a talented freshman, who will start, but is coming off a SERIOUS injury) Landry Nnoko, and Josh Smith (Two rising sophomores recruited by Brownell who don’t even look like they could succeed in Division II basketball, let alone in the ACC) and Bernard Sullivan (a 4-star recruit brought in by Brownell who has shown me nothing to suggest that he is ready to be a reserve, let a lone a go to guy on a light roster). This type of recruiting might work in the SWAC, but not the ACC.

This brings us to the other side of the ball, and the guard situation. This is a position that Coach Brownell can and has recruited very well. In fact, both of Clemson’s 2013 commits (Patrick Rooks and Austin Ajukwa) are guards. However, saying that this roster is guard-heavy would be a drastic understatement, and as a result of this, you WILL see at least one, possibly two guards leave Clemson before the start of the season due to playing time. I see the Freshman Rooks getting key minutes with rising sophomores Adonis Filer, Jordan Roper and Rod Hall. Unfortunately, the odd man out of this rotation will be Sophomore Devin Coleman who will probably look to play his basketball elsewhere.

In the “pound them down low” ACC, I see this team winning about 10 games next year, and unfortunately, the future is no brighter with exactly zero forward/center commits in the 2013 recruiting cycle. The future is bleak and unfortunately, Brad Brownell has done this to himself. His inability to land Tar Heels forward Brice Johnson in his own backyard and his swing and a miss on Jerami Grant and Joel James have doomed Clemson to fate below mediocrity.

As much as I love his system and his attitude, Coach Brownell has put Clemson University in a position where it would take them 3-4 years just to recover from his guard heavy recruiting practice, and with his past recruiting practices, I don’t believe that he can fix the problem. In my opinion, It is time to move on and let another coach try to rebuild the shambles that this team has been turned into…Shaka Smart anyone?

… And the defense 

Honorable Mr. Gordon, do you honestly believe we can convince Shaka Smart or any coach of his caliber to come to Clemson? Are you recommending we fire Brownell for past failures or because you think we can find someone who can take us back to the tournament more quickly and consistently? We’re working on facility upgrades, be it a new practice facility, renovations to Littlejohn Coliseum, or if need be a whole new arena. Let’s not throw him out before we give him the resources he needs.

I agree that recruiting has been a disappointment. I didn’t expect much out of this season, but I did expect at least one forward-center recruit to replace seniors Devin Booker and Milton “Milt Shake” Jennings. Next year may see Jaron Blossomgame (great twitter account) and Landry Nnoko earn starting spots which would seem like a downgrade from the graduating seniors, but hold on just a second. This is Brownell’s fourth year and he will have exactly zero seniors on the team next year. It’s not like he had great senior leadership this year anyway. He has his guys now, so the decline or “transition period” from 22 games in year one to 13 in year three absolutely has to turn around (just for kicks… Purnell’s DePual squad only earned 11 wins this year). He is out of excuses for sure.

I don’t expect a return to 20 wins, but Brownell deserves his fourth season to show that he can return the program to competitiveness. With Syracuse, Pittsburgh, and Notre Dame joining the league next year it’ll be even tougher. I am not sure what to expect, but instead of throwing the baby out with the bath water, and starting this process all over again, likely dooming us to another handful of painful seasons, how about we DEMAND 16 wins in much improved ACC. If he can show that kind of improvement with no graduating seniors, I will feel very comfortable awarding him more time to continue to lay the recruiting groundwork. If that’s the case we’ll have a lot to look forward to in 2015. But I concede this, more regression or a failure to improve next year and it is clearly time to move on.

Best wishes to Brad Brownell, I am a big fan.

Please leave your thoughts in the COMMENT SECTION below.

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Facelift For Clemson Basketball Could Be Bigger Than Previously Planned

Posted on by Ryan Kantor

If you haven’t already caught wind of the news, let me catch you up. It has been well-known that Clemson plans to keep pace with ever improving, ultra-competitive ACC by building a basketball-only practice facility across from Littlejohn Coliseum. An official rendering of what it may looks like is shown below.

New practice facility for both men’s and women’s basketball, which would be built into the hill between the coliseum and the parking adjacent to the West End Zone of Memorial Stadium (Lot 5).

Before leaving his position as Georgia Tech’s AD for the same position at Clemson, Dan Radakovich, oversaw construction of the Yellow Jackets’ new basketball arena, McCamish Pavalion. With that experience, he is highly qualified and I am confident in his judgement leading the charge as the Tigers now work on upgrading their own basketball facilities.

The big news is that these plans are on hold as the Board of Trustees looks into the viability of renovating or even replacing Littlejohn Coliseum, making the outlook suddenly much more extravagant than the original $50 million in facility upgrades.

I, like Mickey Plyler, am somewhat mixed on this. He provides great evidence that a new facility, regardless how fanciful, doesn’t always lead to more on the court success (see UVA). Moreover, Clemson hasn’t shown the ability to consistently “pack the house.” 10,000 seats seems the perfect capacity. I fear building a larger arena only to end up looking like Wake Forest playing a non-conference opponent in front of 7,000 empty seats.

The Georgia Tech game (and win) was sparsely attended, but it was just three some odd years ago that Clemson hosted College Gameday before a big matchup with Duke. The Gameday broadcast was one of the loudest Digger Phelps had experienced, and as was always the case in those years (back in my day), the crowd come tip-off was incredible–loud, intimidating, and 10,000 strong. Clemson happened to lose that game, but the culture at Clemson was simply more “into basketball” in those years. Of course, those teams found more success, and everyone wants to watch a winning team.

Littlejohn is considered one of the toughest places to play. In fact, during a recent ACC broadcast, a former player said it was tougher than Cameron Indoor because it crowds were downright mean. After attending a few games in Lawrence Joel Coliseum, in Winston-Salem (a beautiful facility), I can say that the atmosphere in Littlejohn is special, and is largely fostered by the “right on top of you” construction of the arena itself.

I have memories of Littlejohn comparable to those formed in Death Valley and I’d be sad to see it go. If luxury boxes are a major revenue generator that we could take advantage of, I’d rather see renovation than a full rebuild.  I’d hate to see Littlejohn go if it’s nt necessary, but I admit a new arena would be exciting. Either way, I trust Dan Radakovich to make the best decision for Clemson.

I’m interested in hearing the pulse of Tiger Nation. Please leave your thoughts in the comments below.

If you enjoyed this post, please click the Facebook “Like” button on the right sidebar. You can share your opinions in the comment section below or by tweeting to @Ryan_Kantor. Thanks for reading!

Steve Nash And The Genius That Is Mitch Kupchak

Posted on by Ryan Kantor

The NBA was the first sports league I ever followed and the Lakers my first team, but with David Stern ripping Chris Paul away from us and the whole mess of the NBA lockout, I was pretty bitter about this NBA season (hence just the two NBA blog posts all season). This wasn’t helped by my recent acceptance that  Game Six of the 2002 Western Conference Finals was most likely fixed.

Finally, some big news has come that has me somewhat excited about the NBA again.

After the Chris Paul trade fell through in the pre-season, GM Mitch Kupchak was left scrambling to determine the direction that the team would take. Lamar Odom (just from the Mavericks to the Clippers) was so offended by the notion of being involved in the then collapsed Chris Paul trade, that he demanded to be moved. When Kupchak traded him to Dallas for a trade exception, fans were bewildered and bothered. We expected to get more for such a big piece.

A few months later, Kupchak moved fan favorite, Derek Fisher, for a no-name big man (Jordan Hill), and Ramon Sessions was brought in for Luke Walton, which seemed like nothing more than a booby prize after failing to land Chris Paul (although I was admittedly excited).

Things didn’t look spectacular, but now the real bounty from those moves has arrived. Using the money freed up by the Odom trade, Mitch Kupchak was able to complete a sign-and-trade to bring Steve Nash to Los Angeles. Sessions’ contract has expired (and he will not return) avoiding a logjam at the point guard position. Steve Blake will back up Steve Nash to go along with Kobe Bryant, Pau Gasol, and Andrew Bynum. The dust has settled and the strange moves last year, make a lot of sense.

Without Jackson’s triangle offense, a more dynamic point guard became necessary, and Mitch Kupchak was able to bring one to L.A. and get the most out of Kobe final few spectacular seasons. Kobe Bryant knows his window for championships (at least as the center piece) is closing, and he is determined to get another one (or two) before all is set and done. He went so far as to reach out to Steve Nash and explain why he’d be a good fit for the Lakers. Now we’ll get to see Bryant and Nash on the same team, along with two star big men. At the very least, they’ll be extremely competitive and fun to watch.

General Managers in professional sports play a huge role, and sometimes it can be understated. Let Mitch Kupchak’s role with the Lakers not be so, he is potentially the best GM in professional sports, whether the Lakers win a ring with Nash or not.

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Atlanta’s Favorite NBA Team Wins One In Philips

Posted on by Ryan Kantor

Kobe, Derek, Pau, and the rest of the back-to-back champion Los Angeles Lakers visited Atlanta last week (3/8/11) and dismantled the Hawks. It was their 8th straight win and in my mind cemented their return to dominant play. It was also the only time Atlanta’s apparent favorite team (Laker fans easily out numbered and out cheered Hawks fans) will visit this season as the Lakers play the Hawks once in Atlanta and once in LA each season (both were shortly after the all-star break this season and LA took both wins).

After their win in Atlanta, Laker fans (I’m now speaking for Laker fans everywhere, somehow I can do that) felt like we were back. LA took a travel day, headed to Miami, played a solid game, and lost. Yes, watching the game I thought, “Man, these are two good teams” and they beat us again! So it leads me to wonder if the Heat are that good or if we just don’t have it this year? I mean, we killed the Spurs in our last match-up. I feel like we are the best team in the West and will get to another championship series (so long as Bynum stays healthy) but can we handle Boston (again) or Miami? I’m not sure. Please share your opinion in the comments.

We took care of the Mavericks and Magic since then so maybe we’re in good shape. If we can keep winning (10-1 in last 11) then we should catch the Mavs and get the two seed in the Western confernce. Right now I’m cautiously optimistic.

Go Lakers!